Rant: Banks All Suck

[ratech]

Try IMG. They want everyones money no matter who you are. I have had exceptional service with them on many different types of transactions.

[Julio]

I have done my main banking with TD for years and years...back to when I was with Canada Trust. Never had any problems all those years, have had great service as well. I never pay any fees, because I mnake sure to keep a few K in my account.
A have a few friends (if you are in Calgary) really have great service from First Calgary Financial, and I've been told that they are good for those with less than large bank balances...

[Flames_Gimp]

am I the only one who has no problems dealing with RBC?

[Mike Oxlong]

Stay FAR, FAR away from Scotiabank.
They have to be the worst bank going. I have been with them for about 15 years and the are a monumental pain in the ass to deal with.

They have no interest in helping you or assisting you in anyway and they make simple transactions extremely difficult and frustrating.

I have been threatening to take my business elsewhere for a long time and I really should. It is just such a pian in the ass to transfer all your info over to another bank.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

am I the only one who has no problems dealing with RBC?

I think they would open a big can of worms if they ever gave you any grief, in fact you can probably say the same about any business you deal with

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

I used to work for TD. Don't they get their year end bonus anymore?

But working in a branch is the worst job you can have at the bank. I transfered to a branch from TD Waterhouse when they moved up to Edmonton and I was making the same pay as someone who had worked in the branch for 18 years. hehe. I was only at Waterhouse for 2 years.

I don't really like the banks much but by far Scotiabank is the worst bank i had ever had to deal with. At least TD has alot of bank machines and locations around the city.

She still gets a yearly bonus (although this year it will be ****e because she was off on maternity leave for most of it and went back part-time) but they hyped this thing as a "big deal".

I'm trying to hook it up for her right now. Its a peice of crap.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by ratech

Try IMG. They want everyones money no matter who you are. I have had exceptional service with them on many different types of transactions.

I think you mean ING, and I agree, they're phenomonal.

2.5% interest on my savings account and great service.

I have my mortgage through them too, and I was extremely happy with the service. I could phone at 10:00pm and talk about my mortgage if I wanted to. And when I was moving they called me up and told me they were giving me $300 for moving expenses as part of a promotion (which I didn't even know about).

I've dealt with 3 banks previously, and they're the only ones I've ever been happy with.

[ken0042]

The problem I had with ING is with security. Part of the reason I have a savings account is to have money handy in case of an emergency. For example if I get a call from home saying a family member is in the hospital; I need that money to hop on a plane.

ING will give you an ATM card, and they will assign you a PIN number. The only way to change the PIN is at one of their branches in Toronto or Vancouver. So because this PIN will be different from my other PIN's, I would have to keep it written down somewhere. Also because it isn't a card I will be using regularily; it isn't a number I'm going to memorize.

You can transfer funds to your main bank; but that takes 3 business days. If I get a call on Friday afternoon that my dad is in the hospital; I'm not going to wait until Wednesday to get there.

Funny thing though; shortly after closing my ING account; I got a flyer from them comparing themselves to other banks. They showed that BMO was about 0.2% lower than them. I opened a saving account with BMO and have been happy so far.

[shane_c]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

am I the only one who has no problems dealing with RBC?

I've had no problems with RBC either. I also have an ING account set up so I can actually get some interest on my money.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by ken0042

You can transfer funds to your main bank; but that takes 3 business days. If I get a call on Friday afternoon that my dad is in the hospital; I'm not going to wait until Wednesday to get there.

I always keep $1500 in the account I have linked to my ING account for this reason. Its good if I need access to money quick, and the 1500 lets me avoid monthly fees.

Originally Posted by ken0042

Funny thing though; shortly after closing my ING account; I got a flyer from them comparing themselves to other banks. They showed that BMO was about 0.2% lower than them. I opened a saving account with BMO and have been happy so far.

An interest rate that is 0.2% lower can be a little misleading. You're actually making 8.7% less money with a 2.3% interest rate compared to a 2.5% interest rate, not 0.2% less.

For a very simple example compare $1000 in savings with a 2% vs. 3% interest rate. With the 2% interest you're making $20 in interest and with 3% you're making $30. So you're actually making 50% more money with the 3% interest rate, not 1% more.

Obviously that example is exaggerated to show the difference a seemingly small change in percentage can make, but even the difference between 2.3 and 2.5 can become quite large when you're making an extra 8.7% per year.

That's how I look at it anyway.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by ken0042

The problem I had with ING is with security. Part of the reason I have a savings account is to have money handy in case of an emergency. For example if I get a call from home saying a family member is in the hospital; I need that money to hop on a plane.

ING will give you an ATM card, and they will assign you a PIN number. The only way to change the PIN is at one of their branches in Toronto or Vancouver. So because this PIN will be different from my other PIN's, I would have to keep it written down somewhere. Also because it isn't a card I will be using regularily; it isn't a number I'm going to memorize.

You can transfer funds to your main bank; but that takes 3 business days. If I get a call on Friday afternoon that my dad is in the hospital; I'm not going to wait until Wednesday to get there.

Funny thing though; shortly after closing my ING account; I got a flyer from them comparing themselves to other banks. They showed that BMO was about 0.2% lower than them. I opened a saving account with BMO and have been happy so far.

thats what credit cards are specifically designed for. even if you are 100% opposed to using one, you still need one for booking cars and hotels etc. put it on your CC, transfer the money from ING and pay the bill before the interest kicks in.

how else would you book your tickets anyhow ? you cant book them with cash online can you ?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by fotze

Marry TronFDC, urinate off snakeye and get great bank service.

How the hell did I get involved in this?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

thats what credit cards are specifically designed for. even if you are 100% opposed to using one, you still need one for booking cars and hotels etc. put it on your CC, transfer the money from ING and pay the bill before the interest kicks in.

how else would you book your tickets anyhow ? you cant book them with cash online can you ?

I would transfer funds to my Mastercard Debit card, and book it that way. I try to use my debit card more often than my credit card; it just works out better for me.

Nevermind the fact that my credit card is sometimes (OK often) maxed out.

But my point was ING has an issue with security on the ATM card. My credit card got around this with a scratch and match system for me to enter my pin through a mail in form. ING refused to even acknowledge that it was a security issue; and it concerns me that a financial institution isn't concerned with security.

[RougeUnderoos]

Another bad service rant!

Every single business or institution I phone -- the utility company, the bank, the telephone company... everytime I phone one of these damn things I get that stupid voice that says "we are experiencing higher than average call volumes..."

Now I know I know, nobody likes those systems, but every one of them, every time, is experiencing higher than average call volumes. Now call me crazy, but if you are experiencing higher than average call volumes all the time, doesn't that mean your average is higher and you are not experiencing higher than average call volumes but average call volumes and your system just sucks and you are too cheap to hire more staff?

I swear, I'm moving to a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere.


This public ranting does help though so that's good.

[Antithesis]

I seem to get those warnings no matter if the place I'm calling is actually busy or not; I take them as just another thing to listen to, and probably a pre-emptive way to (hopefully) calm people down before they flip out on the person on the other end.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Another bad service rant!

Every single business or institution I phone -- the utility company, the bank, the telephone company... everytime I phone one of these damn things I get that stupid voice that says "we are experiencing higher than average call volumes..."

Now I know I know, nobody likes those systems, but every one of them, every time, is experiencing higher than average call volumes. Now call me crazy, but if you are experiencing higher than average call volumes all the time, doesn't that mean your average is higher and you are not experiencing higher than average call volumes but average call volumes and your system just sucks and you are too cheap to hire more staff?

I swear, I'm moving to a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere.


This public ranting does help though so that's good.

That's funny. Sometimes I'm forced to call myself and go through our system, and once in a while we'll have that message when call volumes are low. It's just that they forgot to take it off from earlier in the day.

[KipperIsGod]

yep...Banks do suck.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by FireFly

That's funny. Sometimes I'm forced to call myself and go through our system, and once in a while we'll have that message when call volumes are low. It's just that they forgot to take it off from earlier in the day.

A-ha!

Actually where you work isn't all that bad. I've only ever phoned when internet service is slow and they usually tell me that internet service is slow and everybody is phoning in and saying "internet service is slow" so the phones are jammed.

Phoning Enmax at quarter to 5 on a Friday, I had my doubts that they were really backed up.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Every single business or institution I phone -- the utility company, the bank, the telephone company... everytime I phone one of these damn things I get that stupid voice that says "we are experiencing higher than average call volumes..."

Yeah, it's higher cuz of the one crappy operator they have on duty...it's all relative...

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Yeah, it's higher cuz of the one crappy operator they have on duty...it's all relative...

You'd be amazed at what goes into scheduling for call centres. (At least at Telus Mobility.) They have average number of calls received on this day for the last two years, average call time, average after call work time, they plan your breaks so that everyone doesn't get off the phone at the same time... it's crazy. They plan for people being sick, so if no one is sick, you get better wait times. They plan for people to call about things like feature price increases when we have such info sent in your bill. I know I'd hate to work in that department anyways. The goal is to have 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds or less, and we hit that target on a regular basis. Crazy.